Embodiments herein generally relate to electrophotographic printers and copiers or reproduction machines, and more particularly, concerns an adapter card that can bypass the print engine controller to directly change values within a printer's non-volatile memory, based on data maintained by customer replaceable units.
Many recent advances in printing focus on better integration of control systems with the hardware and materials to improve run cost and other functionally important topics (FITs). Many of the concepts and proposals being developed require some level of software integration to gain the full run cost or other FIT benefits. While there is some input to the control software for a manufacturer's developed products, for outsourced or acquired products, the “hooks” into the software to implement advanced technology concepts are lacking, and getting outsource vendors to provide the appropriate taps into the machine control is sometimes difficult. Some of these concepts could benefit the current machine population in the field greatly, but would require a costly and nearly unfeasible software upgrade to implement. In such instances, a manufacturer would likely have very little control of the system software, but would want to inject value-add technologies to improve the performance and robustness of these base engines.
This disclosure outlines a method of obtaining the required control “hooks” in an outsourced print controller that enables concepts being developed to improve run cost and other FITs in current and future acquired engines. Most print engines support some form of external updates of their non-volatile memory (NVM)—through a front panel user interface, service interface, TCP/IP connection, etc. By adding a low cost electronic module to the engine that communicates with the customer replaceable unit memory, often through RFID interface, and the machine control unit (MCU), embodiments herein make it possible to affect machine operation solely through adjustment of the machine's non-volatile memory.
Embodiments herein take advantage of the standard interfaces normally provided by the machine control unit to enable implementation of technology concepts without requiring changes to the system software of the engine. In addition, the embodiments herein enable manufacturing to modify machine settings on a cartridge by cartridge basis to enable improvements that are developed during the machine's life cycle, without requiring a service engineer to make any software upgrades or unscheduled maintenance, and without requiring any special hooks within the machine's engine control software.
More specifically, embodiments herein include a printing device that has at least one printing engine that is at least partially made up of a customer replaceable unit or units. At least one engine controller is operatively connected to the printing engine. (As used herein, one item is “operatively connected to” another item when the items are directly connected to one another, connected to one another by wiring or wireless connections, or connected to one another through intermediate devices).
The engine controller uses software to control the operations of the printing engine. At least one non-volatile memory is operatively connected to the engine controller. The non-volatile memory stores values used by the engine controller to control operations of the printing engine.
At least one adapter card is operatively connected to the non-volatile memory and to the customer replaceable units. The adapter card comprises a physically separate device from the engine controller. The adapter card comprises a printed circuit board, some form of logic unit, such as at least one processor or a field programmable gate array (FPGA) mounted on the printed circuit board, wiring within the printed circuit board connected to the processor, and connection terminals on the printed circuit board connected to the wiring. The connection terminals plug into terminals within the printing device, and are therefore operatively connected to the non-volatile memory.
At least one of the customer replaceable units has a memory unit and the adapter card reads data from the memory unit. The non-volatile memory and the memory unit each comprise some form of computer readable storage medium.
The adapter card uses the data from the customer replaceable unit's memory to directly alter values within the non-volatile memory (even if the software used by the engine controller is non-compatible with the data within the memory unit) by bypassing the engine controller when communicating with the non-volatile memory. Further, the adapter card alters the non-volatile memory without altering the software used by the engine controller.
A method embodiment herein supplies the aforementioned printing engine that has the customer replaceable units. The method connects the engine controller to the printing engine and connects the non-volatile memory to the engine controller. The method also connects the adapter card to the non-volatile memory and to the customer replaceable units. With the method, the adapter card reads data from the memory unit within one of the customer replaceable units, and the adapter card uses the data to directly alter values within the non-volatile memory by bypassing the engine controller when communicating with the non-volatile memory.
The method further comprises manufacturing the adapter card in a process comprising providing the printed circuit board, mounting at least one logic unit on the printed circuit board, connecting the wiring within the printed circuit board to the processor; and connecting the connection terminals on the printed circuit board to the wiring. Again, the connection terminals are operatively connected to the non-volatile memory.
These and other features are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description.